


Ballroom Dances, Budding Romances

by Varenys



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crushes, F/M, First Dance, Fluff, Garreg Mach Monastery (Fire Emblem), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Romance, Romantic Fluff, School Dances, Teen Romance, Teenagers, excuse me while i SCREAM because i love this ship, in which felix is being a big tsuntsun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 01:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21263174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varenys/pseuds/Varenys
Summary: Felix really wants to ask Annette to dance at the Garreg Mach Winter Ball. Like, really. His pride gets in the way, until he gets a little help from Sylvain...





	Ballroom Dances, Budding Romances

Felix’s brooding eyes seared into the figure of a ginger-haired girl who sat cheerfully at the other side of the ballroom. He watched her carefully as her little happy head bobbed to the music. If anyone else caught a glance at Felix at the moment, hunched over in his seat, balancing his chin on his fist, they would’ve assumed he didn’t want to be at this winter ball at all. And perhaps, he didn’t... for the most part. He wasn’t much for school festivities. Too much merriment for his own comfort. And besides, his experiences with dancing weren’t exactly pleasant memories, being forced to learn as a child for his father’s “dumb parties” at their estate.

The days leading to the Garreg Mach Winter Ball, however, although he wouldn’t admit this to a single _ soul _, he discreetly and quietly practiced his footwork for a dance. He felt incredibly stupid doing it, struggling to remember the steps from when he was a child, awkwardly bumbling about in his dorm room with lifted arms. But he had to be prepared. Prepared, in case… he somehow mustered the courage to ask the ginger-haired girl for a dance.

“Felix!”

A strong hand clamped him down on the shoulder, disrupting his thoughts. He looked up to find Sylvain beaming a smile down on him, who was dressed up especially dapper, knowing well tonight was a prime time for impressing the ladies. He was a charmer, that Sylvain, with a different girl on his arm seemingly every other week. But his supposedly charming smile always looked ridiculously goofy to Felix. It vexed him every time he saw it. 

“What do you want?” mumbled Felix.

“You seem awfully lost in thought there, buddy.” Sylvain faked a gasp. “Could it be… about…”

“Oh, just shut up.”

“C’mon, man, I’m sure Annette would love to—”

“Sylvain!” hissed Felix. “Would it _ kill _ you to keep your voice down?”

“Well, it’s not like it’s a secret,” Sylvain said matter-of-factly. “You’re not exactly subtle about it.”

Felix rolled his eyes, but Sylvain’s claim wasn’t off the mark. No matter what Annette would do, Felix could never bring himself to snap at her. They had been on gardening duty the last couple months, and she could accidentally overfill the watering can, forget to use fertilizer, and trip over barrels, but not once did he ever raise his voice at her about it. Ever. He was more preoccupied with listening to her humming, feeling her cheery presence bustling about in the greenhouse, and hearing her cute voice when she chided herself about her own clumsiness. Felix would easily grow irritated if she were anyone else, but strangely he never minded to be around her.

“Felix, please, spare the rest of us from the agony and just ask her to dance,” Sylvain pleaded.

“Look, I…”

“Or else, you know I’m always happy to be your wingman.”

“What? HEY—”

Before Felix could finish his own thought, Sylvain hauled him by the arm and took off toward Annette’s direction. He might’ve had a pretty face, but his strength was surprisingly difficult for Felix to fend off, perhaps from all those axe lessons with the professor. Felix would’ve tried much harder to squirm away from Sylvain’s determined grasp, if it weren’t for the dozen pairs of eyes that were already staring at them as they traveled across the room. Oh, goddess. This was excruciatingly embarrassing.

“Annette! Hey!” greeted Sylvain.

“Hi, Sylvain! Oh, uh… Felix…” Annette looked at the strange scene before her. “What’s going on?” she asked cautiously.

“If you would be so kind, Felix here wanted to have a dance with you.”

“No! I—”

“He’s been shy to ask you all night. Would you do us all a favor and just dance with him?”

“Oh,” said Annette, flustered with her cheeks growing a little pink. “I don’t know, I…”

“See, she’s—”

“Please? Just one dance won’t hurt. He’s been practicing for weeks, you know,” Sylvain implored. Felix’s mouth gaped open in shock. What… did he just say?

“Well, in that case, I suppose... one dance won’t hurt,” said Annette slowly.

“Perfect! I’ll leave you two at it then.” Sylvain made sure to give Felix a wink and a nudge before he scurried away. Felix seethed after him. He... _ knew _ Felix was dancing in his dorm room? And _ didn’t let him know? _

With a resigned huff, he turned to look at Annette, who averted her gaze to her lap and sat patiently in her seat. He had only observed her from afar until now, but she looked even prettier up close. She appeared to have put on a little makeup, her cheeks glowing rosier than usual, and her auburn hair, usually in pigtails, was let down and curled at the ends. Felix’s anger at Sylvain quickly evaporated into the air, and he wanted more than ever to be close to her now.

He extended his hand, suddenly finding the marble tiling on the floor super interesting. “Will you... do me the honor?” he asked in a low voice, almost exploding from embarrassment.

He was half-expecting her to bargain about forgetting her quirky songs she sang in the greenhouse. Or even refuse as payback. His mind flurried in a raging panic. But to his surprise, he felt Annette’s hand slide delicately onto his, and before long the awkward pair slowly made their way to the dance floor.

Felix felt his heart thudding incredibly hard in his chest. He was finding this more terrifying than a duel. At the corner of his eye, he caught Sylvain giving him a supportive fist pump, with Ingrid next to him covering her mouth in vain to hide an obvious laugh. His two friends never thought they’d be seeing Felix on the dance floor in their lifetime, but there he was.

As the couple began to join in the dance, compared to Annette’s graceful steps, Felix’s were painfully amateurish. In his dorm room, he tried to use swordfighting footwork as a reference, since that was the only thing close to dancing that he knew well, but he still had trouble matching his feet to the music. Felix struggled to tear his eyes away from his feet, concerned that he would step on Annette’s if he did.

Annette giggled softly at him. “You don’t dance much, do you?”

“Uh, not exactly. I’m not good at it. Clearly.”

“You almost have it,” she encouraged. “Just remember it’s only four steps.”

“Four steps…”

“Yeah, just follow my feet.”

_ One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. _ Sure, Annette would squeak when Felix accidentally stepped on her foot, eliciting a barrage of “sorrys” from him (“It’s okay! Really!” Annette assured), but in no time the two were floating around the room in sync, smiling and chuckling with each other. When Felix felt confident enough to maintain his gaze at Annette’s pretty face, he found himself wishing the moment would never end, to forever bask in the fresh, sweet scent that emanated from her skin, to forever witness the joy on her face that was there because of him. Out of a sea of couples in the room, Felix and Annette shone the brightest.

But all good things do come to an end, and soon, the music faded to a close, he was letting go of her soft hand, his fleeting moment of euphoria, and they were shrinking back to their usual selves. It might’ve been just him, but Annette looked as though she were just as disappointed.

“Well,” Annette began, warily. “I promised Mercie I’d meet with her before the night ends, so I’m gonna go.”

“Oh. Okay, then.”

“Yeah. Um…” She looked down at her hands where she twiddled her thumbs, brimming with extreme hesitance. “Thank you for asking me to dance. It was a lot of fun.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks for teaching me, I guess,” Felix said, scratching the back of his head.

Relieved, Annette beamed. “No problem! I… I’ll see you around, okay?”

The ginger-haired girl took off in a hurry, leaving Felix with a dumb smirk on his face. Deciding to call it a night, Felix quietly left the ballroom for his room, the dumb smirk not once leaving his face the whole way.

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, I died three times while writing this. I failed terribly to pair these two in my BL route, and after rewatching their support scenes I itched to write a Felix/Annette oneshot and oh my GOD this killed me.
> 
> Also, I have satisfied my need to see Sylvain actually successful in his wingmanship. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.


End file.
